Jolt Awards 2014: The Best Programmer Libraries

As you might expect for a product now in its 19th version, Combit's List & Label 19 is a rich, polished, and capable product. I believe it's the one of the best ways to add reporting and charts to Windows programs. It supports a wide variety of development environments.

Like any good development library, List & Label makes it easy to get up and running quickly. Reports can be designed drag-and-drop style (see image), then incorporated into your program with little effort. More-advanced capabilities, such as expandable drill-down regions, interactive filtering through parameters, sorting, barcodes, crosstabs, and more, can be added from there.

Beyond rows and columns of data, List & Label includes a broad array of chart styles (including new support for funnel, pipeline, and donut charts) that can be incorporated into reports. There's also support for Gantt charts and gauges. The Enterprise Edition supports shapefiles for geographic visualizations  data plotted on maps or on graphical depictions of other areas, such as concert halls or campus buildings.

Among the most appealing features is the freely redistributable report designer, with its Microsoft Office-style interface, so that users can customize reports on their own.

Unfortunately, our concern from earlier versions about licensing policies remain. The company requires licenses for every developer on a project that uses List & Label, not just those actively using the company's software.  Robert DelRossi

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